The Charm, Wit, and Chivalry of a Knight
by Luna Myth 11
Summary: Loke has always wanted to be a knight, the ideal of heroism and chivalry. He has the looks and the charm for it and soon he has the title. But when he's placed as one of Princess Lucy's personal guards, he finds that he can't keep up his charisma in the presence of his Princess. LoLu Week, Days Two and Three.


The first rule of a knight's code is they must protect and defend their monarch at all costs. The safety of their monarch and their country comes before their own lives."

Loke had taken those words to heart. More than anything else he had been taught as a squire, he believed in the honor and the heroic notion of the first rule of the knight's code.

That idea of honor and heroism was what had driven him to become a knight. That, and the close association with rescuing damsels that came with the title. A heroic knight was exactly the sort of person Loke fancied himself to be and so that's what he tried to become. The physical training hadn't been like he'd thought it would be, but the mental training had surprised him by being pretty interesting. The lectures and diplomatic sessions had come easily to him and soon his knightly persona was complete.

He had been placed as a guard to the princess because of his manners and wit and the development couldn't have pleased him more. His charm had a habit of getting him into trouble, but now it worked to his advantage. No matter how skillful a knight was with a sword, they would not be placed in the princess's royal guard if they weren't equally skillful with words. His current position was a testament to everything Loke wanted to be, in his eyes.

The trouble was that it was becoming difficult to be a smooth-talking and honorable knight the more he was around the princess herself.

Her name was Lucy, not that he was ever allowed to call her that, and she was absolutely gorgeous. She had shimmering golden hair, expressive chocolate brown eyes, and all of the countenance you would expect from a princess. But it wasn't her considerable beauty and charm that was slowly eating away at his persona, or at least not only that. What was really causing Loke difficulty was his princess's kindness.

As due his position, he spent a lot of time doing not much at all. A guard simply protects their charge and unless their charge is in danger, there isn't anything for them to protect them from most of the time. So Loke watched, waited, and listened whenever he was on duty. And his obvious choice was to observe the princess. Not only was this a good way to make sure she was safe, but watching Princess Lucy was highly entertaining to Loke.

At first he had admired her beauty and grace, nothing more, but soon Loke found himself entranced by his princess's interactions with the nobility and servants alike. She possessed a skill and wit with words that left Loke pleasantly surprised, but rarely did she use her talents to harm others. She was friends with most of the servants and all of the nobility respected and admired her greatly. It seemed that the only time she got into arguments was on the behalf of others, but when she did she was breath-taking in her righteous anger.

Everything that Loke learned about the princess fascinated him and more often than not, he didn't want to leave at the end of his duty shift. But equally he wanted to leave as fast as possible before he embarrassed himself. Princess Lucy befriended everyone and her guards were no exception. She always said good-bye when they left and, being chivalrous knights with a code of honor, the guards always responded in kind. But Loke's charming good-byes had started to fail him around the same time he'd noticed the princess's exceptional kindness and spirit. His persona was falling apart more and more and he was struggling to understand why.

One day, Loke stood guard outside the princess's quarters, observing the other people who dwelled in the castle as they hurried past, all the while listening out for Princess Lucy in case something happened. In case something dangerous happened, to be precise. Nothing of that nature occurred, but a lady-in-waiting appeared, seemingly quite distressed, and asked if she could enter the room.

Loke bowed, chivalrously in his opinion, theatrically in the lady's, but the effect was charming none-the-less. He winked at her and allowed her to enter, sweeping her into the room. Far be it from him to trouble a damsel in distress.

The princess noticed him and her eyes lit up in thought. "Sir Loke, you can come in now. You might be just the person we need."

Loke did as he was told, curious. Princess Lucy must know the lady-in-waiting quite well if she could guess what the problem was right away. A friend of the princess was a friend to him as well; he would help if he could.

"What can I do for you, your Highness?" he asked, his mask of chivalry and confidence intact. While he was puzzling over the lady-in-waiting, thoughts of the princess couldn't crack his persona.

She looked from him to her friend, a clever gleam in her eye, and Loke had to amend that statement. Butterflies started fluttering in his stomach and his confidence slipped slightly.

"This is Lady Levy." Lucy said, introducing Levy to Loke. "In addition to being a lady-in-waiting, she works at the library here in the castle."

"A pleasure to meet you, my lady." Loke bowed again and kissed Levy's hand briefly before pulling back.

"It's nice to meet you as well, Sir Loke. I've heard about you from several different sources."

Levy seemed witty and clever, much like the princess. It was no surprise they were friends. The real question Loke was curious about was what exactly she'd been hearing about him and from where. It was a question for a later date, however, so he smiled his most charming and mysterious smile before returning his full attention to his princess.

Lucy continued. "Levy and a man named Gajeel are courting, but since he's not a born-citizen of our country, some of the nobility won't even acknowledge it! So last night, those nobles saw him outside of Levy's quarters and accused him of impropriety before talking him away to a holding cell."

There it was again. The princess was genuinely upset on behalf of her friend. Loke listened with interest, knowing a plan to help Lady Levy and Gajeel was coming. He also knew that Princess Lucy would want to help out personally, so he was not surprised as the plan unfolded.

"It normally takes several days to get someone released through the usual channels." Lucy informed him. "But there's a way we can get him out quicker, if you help."

Princess Lucy explained the plan and soon Loke had been assigned to guard Gajeel's cell. Not that he was actually going to guard it. No, his purpose there was to make sure the actual guards didn't interfere with the rescue. He felt rather honored that the princess had trusted him with this over the other guards and he intended to make this mission a success.

Not long after he'd began his shift, Lucy and Levy, in plain clothes, appeared to free Gajeel with the keys they had acquired. Loke guessed that Princess Lucy had been the one to get them. For some odd reason, she was very good with keys. Several times she had helped out the servants with the tricky lock on third-floor storeroom door.

Loke's keen eyes caught sight of movement in the corridor that was their escape route. It was a shadow, one amongst many in the dimly lit cell and hallway, but the only thing that moved apart from Lucy's hands fiddling with the key.

His posture relaxed and he slipped towards the corridor silently to waylay whoever was coming. A stealth mission implied that no one was supposed to see them, but more than that, no one was supposed to suspect them. Better that one person wonder why the guard had left his post than see the princess and her friend breaking out a prisoner.

Cat-like, Loke slid up beside the newcomer through the shadows before tapping them on the shoulder.

It was a young woman, carrying a lantern and a tray. She spun around in surprise, nearly dropping the tray, and stared at him.

"I'm sorry to frighten you like that." Loke said smoothly. "Here, let me take your lantern to make it up to you."

Getting over her shock, the young woman handed him the lantern. "It's alright. But what are you doing over here?"

"I heard you coming and wanted to help." Loke lied. "I had assumed you were here bearing lunch and I didn't want you to be burdened with both a tray and a lantern for too long."

"That's very kind of you." the young woman said, taken aback.

"Hey, chivalry is my middle name." he answered, sneaking his free arm around her shoulders. "Careful on this passageway, it's rather rough."

The young woman blushed and Loke smiled at her charmingly. If he could only keep her distracted long enough for the others to sneak past… They had started to continue down the corridor, but suddenly Loke stopped. His 'new friend' stopped as well.

"I would offer to carry the tray the rest of the way by myself, but I wouldn't want to deprive myself of your presence." he began. "Maybe we could continue along more slowly. I could still carry the tray, of course."

She agreed and handed it to him, confused but pleased by his interest. He skillfully balanced the tray with the arm carrying the lantern, so he could keep his other arm around the woman's shoulder. Then he proceeded to chat to her amiably, drawing her into the conversation until at last they stopped walking and her attention was fully on him. He was more grateful than ever for his persona and charm. He would have been hopelessly inept at distracting her otherwise. Perhaps even hopeless at talking to her. Like with…

The princess. Had she heard his attempts to waylay their intruder? What had she thought if she had? Did she appreciate his charm and skill or did she disapprove of what he was doing? Suddenly, the smooth-talking and confident aura he had projected around himself, had been effortless producing, seemed hard to maintain. He doubled his efforts.

After what seemed like forever, he had distracted her enough to let him put down the tray and lantern. He could only hope that Lucy and Levy and Gajeel were paying attention because this was their chance.

"It's been great talking to you," he said, subtly switching the arm he had around her. "But I'm afraid I've distracted you from your duties for long enough. A friend's going to be here soon. She can return the tray. You can head on back up to the world of light with the lantern."

He winked at her and positioned them to face the wall in a sort of huddle, listing back towards the way they'd come. "I hope to see you around. And if you pass my friend, tell her hello."

The young woman looked slightly put out at the mention of his 'friend', but she had brightened when he expressed the wish to see her again. She bid him farewell and went up the passage back to where she'd come from with the lantern. Loke hoped she didn't suspect anything.

He also hoped that one of the others had understood what he meant. Or even heard him. He retreated back to his position of guarding the now empty cell. A few moments later, Levy entered the room and Loke breathed a sigh of relief that the plan had worked.

"I have to admit, that was pretty clever of you, Loke." Levy informed him. "And it seems the tales of your charm when it comes to women weren't exaggerated. You did a great job distracting her."

"Thank you very much, but that was far from my best work." Loke replied with an odd twist of modesty and sincerity. He genuinely believed that he had barely succeeded. The act of charming that woman hadn't come to him naturally and it was only because of his years of experience that he had succeeded. His persona kept nearly failing him. Something curious was going on and it had to do with Princess Lucy. Whenever he thought of her, his confidence fell away and he could barely speak, much less make any semblance of a witty reply. And yet he wanted to charm and please her more than anyone else.

"I don't suppose you could answer a question for me, could you, Lady Levy?" He asked, leaning back against the empty cell. His face was in shadow, but his bright hair was visible.

"I could give it a try." She replied.

"What does it mean when a knight always loses his ability to be charming and heroic in front of his princess?"

Levy appeared thoughtful for a moment before answering. "That normally means they're love interests. When the knight realizes how kind or good the princess is, he slowly becomes in awe of her and can't keep up his confident and dashing persona."


End file.
